WRC Testing

[ouvreur]

And see the co-drivers seat now level with the driver so each seat supports the other in a side impact accident.

I'm not sure that's the reason why... a side impact significant enough to move the driver's seat is going to need more than another seat to absorb it...

It looks like they're testing with their homologation chassis, judging by the dot used for scanning that they've forgotten to remove from the rear main hoop gusset. Doubt that's significant, just cool - and it suggests they've already completed the part of the process that involves taking the car to Switzerland.

[AnttiL]

Well spotted, and confirmed

https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2021/wrc...s-hybrid-spec/

[Andre Oliveira]

That is well spotted but a bit bad to Hyundai side.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I'm not sure that's the reason why... a side impact significant enough to move the driver's seat is going to need more than another seat to absorb it...

Craig Breen and Paul Nagle said in an interview last night that its to stop one seat going over or under the other in a crash. The 'wings' of the two seats are now locked together.

[mknight]

Well spotted, and confirmed

https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2021/wrc...s-hybrid-spec/

Note that the picture of Katsuta from the side has a "cover" that covers part of the big opening behind the front wheel.

On second look Ogier had the same cover on his test. That might be the biggest difference I see on this latest car.

[Mirek]

I'm not sure that's the reason why... a side impact significant enough to move the driver's seat is going to need more than another seat to absorb it...

The main reason for having them in the middle side by side is to have larger deformation zone on the outer side. Since it is very small every centimeter counts. It helps a little bit also with the balance of the car of course.

[dimviii]

Κatsuta
https://youtu.be/Jh5cocm-6hc

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Breen stated he has just has one more day of testing next week (think he said in Rovaniemi) and then the PET for Monte in January.

So there's not much more opportunity to prepare for the new season behind the wheel. But luckily he already feels really comfortable in the Puma.

There will also be a hybrid system 'training day' in Jan 2022 for all Rally1 crews run by the WRC.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Toyota:
The team has a final pre-event test scheduled the week before Rallye Monte-Carlo but Fowler said there were no plans to squeeze a Rally Sweden snow test into the plan until after the French fixture.

“We have looked into it but we don’t have the ideal conditions at the moment to do that so we won’t do any other testing for other surfaces until after Monte-Carlo now,” Fowler explained.

[Andre Oliveira]

Katsuta